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Lacking formal education?

© Annemarie Cross

Does the prospect of competing against other job seekers worry you due to your lack of tertiary education qualifications? If your career demonstrates solid contributions, experience and relevant skills, and you feel confident that you are well-suited to the role despite the lack of a formal degree, don't pass the opportunity by. Integrate the following strategies when developing your resume to enhance and position your application against potential competitors who possess glowing academic credentials.

Professional development and training:

Include a 'professional development & further training' section to highlight successful completion of related training throughout your career. This might include in-house workshops, seminars, conferences, and self-directed courses/certifications to provide you with some impressive up-to-date and pertinent education in comparison to an outdated degree.

Accomplishments and contributions:

Showcase your most significant contributions and competencies as well-written statements to demonstrate the value you offer the organization. Allowing the hiring manager to understand the impact you have made throughout your career may be far more impressive than a degree.

Don't minimize the importance of your skills but rather identify situations in which you spearheaded revenue-building or cost-reducing initiatives, or other ways that underpinned positive results to the company's bottom line. Organizational contributions and successes can be far more valuable than a degree, as you have demonstrated your initiative and ability to contribute to the ongoing success of the company.

To assist you in researching and writing your contribution statements, I have provided a few examples for you below. Perhaps you:

- Played an influential role in penetrating a new market; seized 35% of competitor market share; and/or expanded market share by 45% through implementation of aggressive marketing campaigns;
- Created an innovative advertising and promotional plan that captured significant growth in the company's customer base by 66% in under four months;
- Streamlined the entire filing system with over 10,000 individual records, eliminating time wasted by administration staff searching for lost files.

Listing these accomplishments within your resume should encourage the reader to overlook your educational drawbacks and focus on your impressive achievements and the overall worth you offer to their organization.

On-going studies:

Include current and/or partially completed studies in either of the following formats:

For current enrolments that have not yet begun:
- Enrolled in Bachelor of Science - Major: [Subject] (expected completion 12/2006)

For current and partially completed courses:
- Bachelor of Science - Major: [Subject] (expected completion 12/2006) Modules completed: [List the modules completed]

For partially completed studies that you do not intend to finish:
- Bachelor of Science - Major: [Subject] (2/2001-6/2004)

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